My name is Will and I own a 97 Camaro 3.8 30th anniversary edition. When I bought it I was told it needed a timing chain and when I drained the oil I had more antifreeze then oil in the pan. I tore the front of the engine apart and it looked like the block had cracked right by the timing chain. The car has 237300 miles on it. The transmission has been rebuilt once I know for sure as it has the GM Goodwrench rebuild sticker on it. The metal magnet in the transmission pan was full of metal shavings. A little nervous but we will see. I would like to mention I am not a mechanic. I know the basics but full on I just don't have it. I decided that sense I was so poor and I would never have the money to pay for an engine swap I would try it myself. Found me another 3.8 liter out of a flipped 96 Camaro with 96156 miles on it for $450. Bought that engine about a year ago and been working on the car every sense. Good news is I have then engine back in the car and it starts and runs. Bad news is my check engine light is flashing. None of my vacuum lines are hooked up yet and I have a ground wire I'm not sure where it goes but I need to get it going last week. Looking for some friendly advice and maybe even things to expect to go wrong while finishing or parts expected to go bad from sitting. Thanks guys.

 

first off download the factory service manual. go here, https://www.mediafire.com/?40mfgeoe4ctti use the 1996 file. be same as yours.

 

Flashing Check engine light means you have a miss and the PCM is trying to warn you about damaging the Cat.

You want to pull codes It may even tell you what cylinder is missing. Grounds are critical to fuel injection. In the back of the above GM manual there are a lot of realistic wiring diagram showing you wire routing. You want to skim through that and find your missing ground. Same thing for the Vacuum hoses. I bought a car without a engine in it and I ended up making a visual aid from the GM manual.

This is for a 93 LT1 but you get the idea



Just a FYI the intake gasket is a very common issue with older 3800, there was even a class action law suit against GM for it. It is possible your motor cracked but that would be very rare. I say this because the intake gaskets are weak from the start and sitting without running for a long time can trigger a failure. You don't want your new motor to follow the path of the old one.

If you need to pull codes at home on the cheap research Elm 327 cable or Blue tooth. They can be had cheap but you must do the research some of the newer ones will not work with older cars. My USB Elm 327 worked great on my 96. 96-97 are almost identical.

 

good stuff Gorn ,that should help a lot ,an like Gorn said don't run the car until you got it right ,he knows alot about these cars alot

 

This is all good news. I don't have any books with it so should be interesting trying to find it all but I know it's out there another thing about this car is who ever had it cut the catalytic converter off and welded strait pipe. I have one ground that I know is right and another that I know isn't. There is a bare ground that runs with the positive battery cable. Not paying attention I hooked it to the block down by the motor mount and then again on the top of the block. No good there just two different days of trying to pin point things. Also before I put the engine back in I went through and replaced every single gasket and seal in the engine except the head gaskets. Probably should have but I was working with a very limited budget and time. I am recently divorced and my ex wife is making my financal life a living hell lol. All in all I still have about $300 in gaskets and seals. New water pump and timing chain. I'm am trying to make it so I never have to pull this engine again. It's been a somewhat stressful ride. I have been told by a few mechanics around her that for the money I have spent on this engine I would have been better off throwing an old 350 in it. I am personally a much bigger fan of the older box body's but at the price I got this in the shape it's in I can't complain. It really is a nice car. It has its soggy spots and shows its age but in great shape for how the drive drain was treated.

 

LOL, who ever told you knows nothing about a 4th gen Camaros. There is nothing easy or cheap replacing a V6 with a first gen V8. Sometime when you bored check out the project section. There are a couple completed conversions but for every one that was completed there was 20 started and given up on.

The 3800 is a rock solid motor, I would go as far as saying the 3800/ 5 speed is a bullet proof as any combo I have worked on. I did my project 96 (click on the link in my sig) I drove it 5 years and 90,000 miles after I installed the replacement engine and I never had to touch the engine itself. I did have a coil fail and a MAF sensor go out on me but both gave me plenty of warning and never let me sit. Now the body has 225,000 miles on it and the engine is the best part of the car.

 

That is good to know. It sure takes a load off knowing I went the right direction. I don't want to sound Naïve but I'm sure going to put my trust in the forums long before I do any Ho buck with a bottle of whisky in his hands. That being said, still seemed like a pretty cool guy lol.

 

yup I got to say I like the 3800 an hear of so many going 200.000 + miles too,you on the right road

 

Well I'm not going to lie to anyone, I drive like a jackass. If I'm on the highway anything less then 80mph is unexceptionable. I accelerate hard, I brake hard, and I go around corners as fast as anything I own will let me and that's about 90% of the time. Another reason I put forth so much effort to try and make it right. I had an 08 Nissan Titan crew cab long bed 4x4. That was my baby. I put my heart in that truck and my wife took it from me. You live and you learn. Now I'm starting from the bottom. I am wondering, I have an SGS switch on my dash. Can anyone tell me what that is? It appears to be from the factor but I have never seen that type of switch before.

 

second gear start. download a owners manual. brb